Digital Literacy Programme to roll-out in Homabay and Marsabit Couties tomorrow

Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Mining, Hon Dan Kazungu will preside over the launch in Sero Primary School, Asego, Bungoma County while Principal Secretary Ministry of Environment and Regional Development will be at Korr Primary School, Laisamis, Marsabit County.

Last week The Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communications and Technology Mr Joe Mucheru distributed the laptops to Pupils of Ortum Primary School in West Pokot County today.

The Government started distributing digital devices (laptops) last week in a move that will see more than 1.2 million laptops distributed across the country by December 2016.

The devices include laptops for teachers, tablets for pupils and braille embossers for special learners, projectors, digital content servers and wireless routers.

The distribution, which is being handled by cabinet secretaries and principal secretaries will see massive roll-out of the programme aimed at producing a tech-savvy generation.

According to CS Mucheru, as at last week, over 160,000 devices had been received with more expected weekly. The digital devices are fitted with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) approved content, of which the content for Class One and Two are already available. The digital content for Class five to eight can also be accessed and downloaded for free.

The ICT Ministry has also dispatched skilled ICT officers to support teachers and guarantee quality in delivering the programme. The officers include recent ICT graduates, majority of who are alumni or current participants of the Presidential Digital Literacy Programme.

Mr Mucheru said plans are also underway to commence the assembly of devices locally, with consortia of JKUAT/Psotivo BGH and Moi University /JP Courto already setting up assembly plants. JUKAT is set to begin its assembly operation this month.

The plant has a capacity of assembling 750,000 devices per year creating 3,000 local jobs. Education CS Dr Fred Matiang’i said on Thursday the State has trained 72,000 teachers and will train 12,000 more this phase – bringing the total to 84,000 teachers under the DLP programme.

In his update, Energy and Petroleum CS Charles Keter said less than 500 primary schools are yet to be connected to the national grid, adding that some schools will be connected to solar and wind power.